WRESTLING: Pottstown's Clifford pulls off 1st round stunner

Pottstown’s Trenton Clifford celebrates after his win over previously-unbeaten James Dodson of Claysburg-Kimmel in the first round at 132 during Thursday morning’s action at the PIAA Class AA Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey. (Photo by Nate Heckenberger)

HERSHEY — Trenton Clifford spent a little time rolling around on every one of the six mats sprawled out on the Giant Center floor during informal workouts Wednesday night.

He now has a favorite: Mat Two.

That’s where the Pottstown senior pulled off the biggest upset of Thursday morning’s opening round of the PIAA-Class AA Wrestling Championships with a second-period pin of previously unbeaten James Dodson of Claysburg-Kimmel.

The 132-pound Clifford, a disappointing fifth at last week’s Southeast Regional, needed 3:43 to break up a scoreless struggle and deck Dodson, the District 6 and Southwest Regional champion who owned a spotless 37-0 record.

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“We all came out (Wednesday night) and got a pretty good workout in,” explained Trojans head coach Jamie Gill. “We made sure (Clifford) stepped on every mat. Our game plan was to get him comfortable on every single mat.”

Talk about executing a game plan to perfection.

Clifford, who improved to 38-4 and picked up his 98th career win, became the first Pioneer Athletic Conference wrestler – and quite possibly the first in the history of District 1 wrestling – to defeat an unbeaten regional rival in the first round of states ... and that’s in Class AA as well as Class AAA.

That alone, of course, put an exclamation point on the victory.

“When we came out here (Wednesday night) a lot was on my mind,” Clifford said. “The size of this place, the crowd, wrestling an unbeaten kid. It kind of overwhelmed me.

“But today was my second time in here, and I was OK with everything. I didn’t have any worries. I was just focused on (Dodson), nothing else.”

Clifford worked himself into a stalemate to narrowly avoid being taken down midway through the opening period. After the restart, he nearly had a takedown of his own before the period ended. He won the flip and deferred to Dodson, who opted for the down position.

Talk about playing into Clifford’s hand.

“I didn’t mind that at all when (Dodson) took down to start the second period,” Clifford said. “I heard that he was good on top, but I feel my strength is on top, too. So I felt I had an advantage being on top. It’s where I wanted to be.”

Clifford needed about a half-minute to turn Dodson – a three-time state qualifier. He got the slap 1:07 into the second period to advance into this morning’s quarterfinals against Bethlehem Catholic’s highly touted Randy Cruz.

“I just didn’t want to be sloppy in the first period,” Cifford said. “I didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“In the second period I was looking for the cradle and trying to work my butcher series. But then I got his shoulder and ripped it, ripped it and ripped it some more. I finally was able to turn him and got the pin.”

“We really didn’t know who (Dodson) was other than he was undefeated and that he was pretty good on top,” Gill added. “But I think he may have seen he was going up against a fifth-seed kid...”

And possibly overlooked Clifford?

“Maybe,” Gill said. “I know (Clifford) wasn’t overlooking him.”

Clifford needs a win this morning to guarantee himself a medal, and to keep his drive to 100 career wins going.

Cruz will be as imposing a challenge as Dodson was Thursday morning. The Bethlehem Catholic junior (39-2), second at last week’s Southeast Regional, is a two-time state runner-up and three-time medalist with a 159-20 career record.

But Clifford will approach Cruz much like he did Dodson.

“I knew (Dodson) was undefeated, and I knew he’d be tough,” Clifford said. “But I was talking to (Gill), who reminded me that I’m one of 16 left in my weight class) in the entire state. I’m one of the 16, and we’re all equally tough.”

NOTES

Cruz opened with a 6-2 decision of Curwensville’s Jake Keller (35-4). ... District 1’s only other qualifier in the Class AA bracket, Phil-Mont Christian’s Richie Cerebe (35-3), was on his way to an upset of Lake Lehman’s Austin Harry (38-1), holding a 2-1 advantage through two and a half periods. However, Cerebe was tilted and surrendered three back points in the waning moments of the bout, and fell 4-2 to the Northeast Regional champion. ... This morning’s AA quarterfinals get under way at 9 a.m.